Onboard the Versailles of River Ships: Photos from my Rhine River Cruise

Wendy Perrin was on a Rhine River cruise in Germany last week and took some photos of her trip from Boppard to Amsterdam. The weather wasn't great, but she says the S.S. Antoinette is the Versailles of river ships.

Early April is hardly the best time of year for a European river cruise. On the Rhine in Germany last week it was cold, foggy, drizzly, and gray, and I was on the less scenic stretch of the river the northern part, from Boppard to Amsterdam. It didn’t look the way it does in river cruise brochures. What I found most eye-popping, actually, was the ship itself. The_ S.S. Antoinette_ is the Versailles of river ships. Here are some informal pics I snapped. Imagine what my journey might have looked like if the hills were green and the skies were blue:

The captain of the S.S. Antoinette is 34-year-old Jord Zwaal, from the Netherlands. Here he is in the wheelhouse.

Cruise manager Markus Schindelegger hails from Austria, and behind him is hotel director Julie Zwaal, who comes from South Africa. Julie is the captain’s wife; they met on a ship a few years ago.

The S.S. Antoinette has an indoor pool.

The pool room is a great spot for lounging with a book, even if you’re not going to swim.

Castles on the Rhine, including medieval Marksburg Castle, tend to look prettiest from May through October.

The blankets on the S.S. Antoinette’s “sun deck” were a nice touch.

The blankets came in very handy.

The chandelier in the lobby used to hang in New York City’s Tavern on the Green.

My cabin had both a balcony and a floor-to-ceiling glass window, so the Rhine was the first thing I saw upon waking each morning.

Here’s a closer look at the bed.

My cabin had plenty of desk and closet space and a total of three televisions (the one you see here, plus one above the bed and one on the balcony).

Nice balcony, huh?

You could push a button to lower the top half of the windows, so you could get a breeze and a clear view.

Never before have I seen a bathroom stocked with three different types of soaps/shampoo—Bulgari, L’Occitane, and Molton Brown.

I was overjoyed to find such an assortment of electrical outlets. It’s all too rare on cruise ships.

Alas, there was no Wi-Fi in my room. When I needed Internet access I had to go into the hallway. See that sofa? My laptop and I spent many hours together there.

As if an indoor pool weren’t enough, the 164-passenger ship also has a 3-D movie theater!

Here’s the S.S. Antoinette docked in Boppard, Germany. It was a bit of a walk into town.

A pretty building in Boppard.

Another pretty house in Boppard.

I liked this mural.

Here we are in Cologne. Germany’s largest Gothic church, Cologne Cathedral, sits near Germany’s busiest railway bridge. (I snapped this as we floated past.)

Eau de Cologne was invented here by Giovanni Maria Farina in 1709.

Inside the world’s oldest perfume factory.

After only three hours in Cologne, we had to be back onboard, where high tea was served in L’Orangerie.

I loved this shipboard Easter treat: a colored egg baked into bread.

Speaking of bread, these pretzel bunnies were on sale in Cologne the day before Easter.

Back in the wheelhouse, here’s Captain Jord Zwaal steering us through Dusseldorf (where we did not bother stopping).

A captain and a hotel director out of central casting.

Our cruise ended at this pier in Amsterdam. River ships park alongside each other especially at crowded piers like Amsterdam’s, which means you walk over other ships in order to reach the dock.